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What are the causes of homelessness and its effects
What are the causes of homelessness and its effects
The concept of homelessness
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Homelessness
American society today is epitomized by the growing divide between rich and poor. What is significant about this fact is that both ends of the spectrum are accelerating away from each other, with poor individuals sliding further still into the doldrums of poverty, while those that have enjoyed success in the past to a large degree continue to accumulate even larger sums of riches.
One segment of the population facing increasing prospects of poverty are students who are tasked with facing disappearing jobs, and skyrocketing education costs. Another large segment facing issues in relation to poverty are the elderly, and minorities, as well as individuals living in single parent households. In 2013, the national poverty rate rose to include 13.2% of the population in the United States meaning that almost 1 out of every 6 people in the wealthiest nation in the world were living at or below the poverty line. In addition to this inexcusable figure, 3.5 million people were forced to sleep in under bridges and in parks in 2013. These unfortunate developments are the result o...
With each class comes a certain level in financial standing, the lower class having the lowest income and the upper class having the highest income. According to Mantsios’ “Class in America” the wealthiest one percent of the American population hold thirty-four percent of the total national wealth and while this is going on nearly thirty-seven million Americans across the nation live in unrelenting poverty (Mantsios 284-6). There is a clear difference in the way that these two groups of people live, one is extreme poverty and the other extremely
The homeless population is growing in America. There are more and more Americans living in boxes, sleeping on park benches and panhandling on the streets each day. These people tend to make us, the non-homeless, feel uncomfortable and unsafe. They are also placing increasing stress on the nation's economy. In short, the homeless are a burden on the rest of society. There needs to be action taken against them. "I shall now humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection (Swift.)" I propose that all of the homeless be relocated to foreign third world countries. They can then be hired in American factories producing shoes, automobiles and other various goods at less than one dollar per hour.
The highest earning fifth of U.S. families earned 59.1% of all income, while the richest earned 88.9% of all wealth. A big gap between the rich and poor is often associated with low social mobility, which contradicts the American ideal of equal opportunity. Levels of income inequality are higher than they have been in almost a century, the top one percent has a share of the national income of over 20 percent (Wilhelm). There are a variety of factors that influence income inequality, a few of which will be discussed in this paper. Rising income inequality is caused by differences in life expectancy, rapidly increases in the incomes of the top 5 percent, social trends, and shifts in the global economy.
In the United States there are four social classes : the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the lower class. Of these four classes the most inequality exists between the upper class and the lower class. This inequality can be seen in the incomes that the two classes earn. During the period 1979 through the present , the growth in income has disproportionately grown.The bottom sixty percent of the US population actually saw their real income decrease in 1990 dollars. The next 20% saw medium gains. The top twenty percent saw their income increase 18%. The wealthiest one percent saw their incomes rise drastically over 80%. As reported in the 1997 Center on Budget's analysis , the wealthiest one percent of Americans ( 2.6 million people) received as much after-tax income in 1994 as the bottom 35 percent of the population combined (88 million people). But in 1977 the bottom 35 percent had about twice as much after tax income as the top one percent. These statistics further show the disproportional income growth among the social classes. The gr...
Many people debate on weather homeless people should receive guidance or just be abandoned. Do homeless people deserve our service and to be supported, or are they just lazy individuals trying to take advantage of people? Homelessness is a growing dispute in cities. It has became an extensive problem for the community. Homelessness can not and should not be ignored. The number of homeless people in the United States is quickly growing. It seems like no one cares to help them. Even our heroes like police officers show no sympathy towards the homeless. “Homeless people appeared on the streets of Bucharest in 1990. Since then, their number and the problems created by this phenomenon have steadily increased in all major
Divisions within the social stratum is a characteristic of societies in various cultures and has been present throughout history. During the middle ages, the medieval feudal system prevailed, characterized by kings and queens reigning over the peasantry. Similarly, in today’s society, corporate feudalism, otherwise known as Capitalism, consists of wealthy elites dominating over the working poor. Class divisions became most evident during America’s Gilded Age and Progressive era, a period in time in which the rich became richer via exploitation of the fruits of labor that the poor persistently toiled to earn. As a result, many Americans grew compelled to ask the question on everyone’s mind: what do the rich owe the poor? According to wealthy
Bums. Addicts. Strays. Hobos. Homeless. In America, there is no optimism for the homeless. These people are a lost cause. They are just a waste- a blight to our beautiful cities. No one wants to acknowledge the man asleep in a deserted construction site. No one wants to imagine that he once had a purpose or that he once had hope for his future. Most of all, no one wants to recognize that he got to where he is today because our society as a system has failed him. For so many homeless people like this man, their problems begin as young adults. They struggle to establish themselves for so many reasons. But, what if we could offer young adults in poverty a chance to live to their full potential? What if they learned necessary skills for the workforce? What if they were loved and guided by allies to live up to their
Homelessness is a big problem in the United States and we the citizens are not doing enough about it. You can’t go anywhere in a large city without seeing a box where a homeless person calls home, or just seeing a person in need holding up a sign. There are millions of people that are homeless in the world that won’t ever have the opportunity to speak to their loved ones again. You never really understand what someone is going through or how they got homeless. In this article it shows a group of people helping homeless people locate their long lost love ones http://www.npr.org/2016/10/16/498074856/harnessing-social-media-to-reconnect-homeless-people-with-their-families. People should really think to themselves what if this happened to my father or my brother, and never got to speak to them again. There are many contributions we can make to help that
I would like to start by saying how I see it and define it in my own words. It is the state where an individual doesn’t have a normal house and are not financially stable in life. It is the situation where you have to look after yourself or another person that is also homeless. You won’t be able to find the proper housing like a normal and secured place to live. All day and all night, you will be trying to sustain yourself from everyday challenges, like looking for food to eat, a place to live, and proper clothing.
Although homelessness is widespread and almost next to the catastrophic global hunger problems, it can be brought under control and its effect reduced to a greater percentage. By simply tracking the root causes of low wages and the lack of affordable housing as well as improving other support systems like housing vouchers and health care, homelessness can be solved.
Homelessness is an issue that affects not only the U.S but worldwide as well. There are millions of people who don 't have a home, a place to sleep or even stay. It 's heartbreaking to know this because many of us do have homes, and we don 't have to worry about whether or not we 'll get a spot in a shelter, or what to eat, so we don 't know how these victims really feel. Not all drugs addicts are homeless; this is a stereotype that has been formed in our society. Many people have simply lost their homes or families and they turn out to be homeless in the end. Some of them are even young students. Homelessness does not discriminate; it affects all ages, races, and financial stratas.
The population of Los Angeles continues to grow each day because people perceive that the opportunities will improve their economic and social well-being. Most of them get good jobs manufacturing, business and the government giving them the ability to provide for themselves and their children. Those who are not lucky enough do not realise their goals and depend on the government and the society for basic needs. The effort of the city and the government to house the homeless cannot take the pressure of the rising number of the homeless without the support of the society. Los Angeles in the United State’s largest urban and has the highest number of homeless people making the task of housing its population next to impossible without participation
Income inequality continues to increase in today’s world, especially in the United States. Income inequality means the unequal distribution between individuals’ assets, wealth, or income. In the Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes, a liberal journalist, states the inequality gap between the rich and the poor are increasing widening, and there need to have things done - tax the rich, provide better education - in order to shortening the inequality gap. America is a meritocratic country, which means that everybody has equal opportunity to be successful regardless of their class privileges or wealth. However, equality of opportunity does not equal equality of outcomes. People are having more opportunities to find a better job, but their incomes are a lot less compared to the top ten percent rich people. In this way, the poor people will never climb up the ladder to high status and become millionaires. Therefore, the government needs to increase all the tax rates on rich people in order to reduce income inequality.
While the average person may be able to grasp the concept of vagrancy, it is fair to say that the concept of homelessness is far more complex and cannot be as easily defined. The stereotypical image of homeless people is of those who are sleeping rough on the streets, however this is only one part of the problem. The Housing Act 1988 provided a much criticized legal definition of homelessness, which according to ‘Focus Ireland’ should be more inclusive and detailed. Focus Ireland suggests the homeless community can be split into three groups, the ‘visible homeless’, ‘hidden homeless’ and ‘at risk of homelessness’ The ‘visible homeless’ can be described as people who are sleeping rough and those who are accommodated in emergency shelters (hostels), or private emergency accommodation (bed & breakfasts). The ‘hidden homeless’ are those that are reluctantly sharing with family and friends (sofa surfers), squatters, and individuals/families living in substandard inadequate housing. ‘Focus Ireland’ also highlights that those who are ‘at risk of homelessness’ already have accommodation but could become homeless due to economic difficulties, increases in rent, insecure tenure, and leaving state care (Focus Ireland 2014).
Poverty is an undeniable problem in America. In 2014, 14.8 percent of the United States was in poverty (“Hunger and Poverty Fact Sheet”). There are more people in the United States than it seems that do not have their basic necessities. In an